Hot Rods Considering living in an old service station....

Still searching for a place.

 

Wow, thanks.

 

I grew up in the north east, saw many stations, my favorites look like the one in Rocky Mount, nice floor plan, great looks, two deep stalls and room for living, I worked as a kid at some in NJ that were like that, good luck.

 

very bad idea. own it so no one can make you leave. As far as buying the perfect gas station, you would do better to**build* it

 

I guess the "rent don't buy" thing is so you don't get hit with some EPA clean up fines years from now. is that it?
And I do think the built it idea may be the way to go. Hard to beat that one in Rocky Mount, for what was it $39,000 but I would guess a lot of these would be in areas that I would not want to live in. And then the zoning thing, I'm sure it would be zoned commercial. If you build it yourself, you could pick the location make it a little larger and get a little larger lot, all that stuff. But that may be like driving a fiberglass car!

 

Building your own would be better in the long run. Old buildings remodeled when you are thru cost twice as much as brand new. By building your own you can pick the best location and no EPA and zoning restrictions.

 

This guy in San Angelo Texas made his own. https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8044

 

The building I inhabit part-time was most recently a bakery—but was an auto dealership in the 1930s and before that a bank, after that a carpet store.

I like living with one wall separating me from my projects.

 

If I were single I would do similar without hesitation. Or atleast buy me a "garage house" and decorate it the way I want. So Go for it. You only live once...in this life. Only thing with a gas station is the soil contamitation. Be sure its cleaned out and all gastanks removed.

 

Lol! Reminds of my first job, at an Esso gas station. Saturday morning first shift we always started with coffee and donuts while prepping the work bays. Hadn't thought of that in a long time.

 

Keep your eyes open for old, 50's style drive-in, burger joints , also. Some of those had some very cool, George Jetson architecture. Worst case, you might have to build on a bay or two. You won't have to worry about any abandoned fuel tanks, etc., though.
There are probably lots of buildings out there with one or more overhead doors that you could just add a carport and a pad for gas pumps to get the right look.

 

That looks like an old White Castle burger joint.

 

Nope Greens Hamburgers, Farmington , Mi...we have Bates about 2 blocks from me..same building basically

 

I worked at Farmington and Schoolcraft in 1971-72- ate a lots of Bate's burgers- then they built one at 9 and Middlebelt which was close to where I lived- think both still in business- Bob-

 

There was a Greasy Green's at Orchard Beach and 10 mile- not as good as Bate's-